Antibiotics in farm animals: FDA issues weak rule

By this time everybody knows—or ought to—that the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals is a threat to human health.

Using antibiotics to promote animal growth or reduce feed requirements is a bad idea. Widespread use of these drugs induces microbial resistance, making the antibiotics ineffective against human disease.

So you would think that public health agencies would be falling all over themselves trying to reduce antibiotic use in farm animals. No such luck. Proposals to restrict use of antibiotics for therapeutic purposes runs up against the interests of meat and poultry industries.

The best the FDA can do falls far short of what is needed. Witness its pussy footing on cephalosporin drugs.

This is a modest first step by the FDA…but we’re really just looking at the tip of the iceberg. We don’t have time for the FDA to ploddingly take half-measures. We are staring at a massive public health threat in the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. We need to start acting with the swiftness and decisiveness this problem deserves.

We do indeed. Her bill deserves much support. Public health should not be left up to the meat, poultry, and drug industries to decide.

This is exactly why I try to purchase grass-fed meats instead of conventional whenever I can. Michael Pollan does a nice job detailing what this means in Omnivore’s Dilemma. Eatwild.org is a great resource for find local farmers who raise and sell grass-fed meats in case anyone else is interested in obtaining tasty, well raised meats without going to the grocery store or going vegan/vegetarian.

I will not buy their meat. I buy meat from local ranchers who graze the animals and do not give them antibiotics. I buy in bulk, sharing an animal with several other people.

Our dollars are the only weapon we have. But there are far too few of us who are willing to spare the time and effort, or who have enough dollars, to use it.

MargaretRC

I also buy only grass fed meat and dairy, as well. This is one of many reasons why I try not to eat beef, especially, any where but at home so I know it is grass fed. Nonetheless, I agree that tougher regulations have to be enacted, ASAP, because those resistant bugs bred in feedlots can spread to other places and infect any of us anywhere. CAFO practices are an abomination in so many ways–this is but one. Until such regulations are enacted, and I’m not holding my breath, every one of us who can should vote with our pocketbooks and support local farmers who grow their animals the old fashioned way.

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Don’t consider yourself safe in your smug vegetarian­ism. The manure produced by those animals contains antibiotic­-resistant bacteria, and then it used to fertilize vegetable crops. This problem kills meat-eater­s and vegetarian­s equally. Unless you think cantaloupe­, sprouts and lettuce are animals? Because those have killed more people in the last year than meat-relat­ed food poisoning.

Lyv

Medico: this is why the science is published in peer-reviewed journals. So everybody can ‘know’. I am a scientist (a virologist), and what Dr. Nestle states ought to be true. Everybody should know, by now.
To understand that excessive use of antibiotics in farm animals (and in people, but their overuse in animals is a greater concern) enables the evolution of drug-resistant strains does not even require a bachelor’s degree. The experiment can be done by a high school student. So no, it does not discredit Dr. Nestle. But I suppose she could explain the science in detail, or link to a few of these experiments for your benefit.